Condemned ‘Bitcoin Tsar’ named in Pandora Papers

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The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) has identified a major crypto-criminal among those exposed to funneling funds to obscure tax havens through its Pandora Papers.

According to an October 3 ICIJ document summarizing the organization’s findings during its investigation into Pandora Papers, offshore assets belonging to a self-styled Bitcoin czar convicted of money laundering in the world’s largest cyber-burglary. history have been identified as being managed by one of the companies. .

The Pandora Papers include a treasury of 2.94 terabytes of data spanning 11.9 million records from 14 different offshore service providers. The documents claim to expose the hidden assets of more than 330 politicians and senior officials from 90 different jurisdictions, including 35 country leaders and more than 130 billionaires.

The ICIJ also notes that the holdings of bankers, major political donors, arms traffickers, international criminals, pop stars, spy bosses and sports giants can be identified among the documents.

Although the Bitcoin Czar identified in the Pandora Paper is not directly named, their conviction in connection with the most significant cyber-burglaries in history narrows the field of possibilities as to the identity of the individual.

Reporters described the operations of hacker group Carbanak as unmatched in scale and value, with the cybergang stealing more than $ 1.24 billion from financial institutions and businesses located in more than 100 countries between 2013 and 2017.

While two of the six people were convicted for their roles at Carbanak, the circumstances surrounding the 2018 arrest of alleged Carbanak leader Denis Tokarenko (also known as Denis Katana) suggest he may be the culprit identified in the Pandora Papers.

According to a Bloomberg Businessweek article recounting Tokarenkos’ arrest in March 2018, Spain’s National Police found 15,000 Bitcoin worth $ 162 million at the time in the possession of hackers.

Carlos Yuste, the chief inspector of the Spanish National Police Cybercrime Center, told the publication that Tokarenko also used a Bitcoin mining operation bought in China to launder his stolen funds in BTC.

Many analysts have also described the Bangladesh Bank cyber-robbery in 2016, in which hackers stole nearly $ 1 billion from a Federal Reserve Bank of New York account owned by the central bank of the Bangladesh as the greatest virtual flight in history.

Related: EU Removes This Crypto Hotspot From Tax Haven Blacklist, Paves The Way For Later Adoption

However, former Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation employee Maia Santos Deguito is the only person convicted of the cyber-burglary to date, and a Cointelegraph investigation has provided no source to link Deguito to crypto assets.

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